This is a discussion on Official: Subaru pulling out of WRC tomorrow (Dec 16th 2008) within the Motorsport Stickies forums, part of the Motorsports Talk category; Even more bad news (motor)sports fans. According to a report by Finnish sports site MT3.fi, Subaru will follow in the ...

Official: Subaru pulling out of WRC tomorrow (Dec 16th 2008)

Even more bad news (motor)sports fans. According to a report by Finnish sports site MT3.fi, Subaru will follow in the footsteps of Suzuki and pull out of the 2009 World Rally Championship (WRC) season. While Suzuki's declaration was a surprise, Subaru's exit from the world of rallying would be a serious blow to the sport as a whole and its fans in particular. A formal announcement will supposedly follow tomorrow, but we're keeping our fingers crossed that the Finns got this one wrong. Thanks to Eralp for the tip!

doesn't surprise me given the state of the world economy, the domination of the french cars, the state of fia and the upcoming rules which seem to favor smaller cars.
I wonder if Ford will follow suit?

Team Features
Subaru to withdraw from World Rally Championship
16 December 2008

Subaru has announced its decision to withdraw from the 2009 World Rally Championship
Subaru has announced its decision to withdraw from the 2009 World Rally Championship.

This sudden decision was in response to the widespread economic downturn that is affecting the entire automotive industry, and follows Suzuki’s withdrawal announced yesterday.

After 20 years in the sport, during which time the Prodrive-run Subaru World Rally Team has won six World Rally Championship titles, this is not only sad news for Subaru and the team, but also for millions of rallying fans around the world. Thanks to its highly successful World Rally Championship programme, Subaru has developed into one of the world’s most widely recognised and evocative automotive brands.

Prodrive chairman, David Richards, said: “Subaru’s departure from the World Rally Championship is a great loss as it is one of the sport’s icons. The Subaru World Rally Team has created true champions such as Colin McRae and Richard Burns and its absence will be felt by many the world over. Although this decision closes a significant chapter in Prodrive’s history, our focus now turns to the future.”

For many, Prodrive and Subaru are synonymous, given the long-standing and close association between the two companies. However, while the Subaru World Rally Team historically represented a significant part of Prodrive’s business, today it accounts for no more than 20 per cent of the company’s turnover.

Prodrive will look to redeploy as many of the rally team as possible in other areas of its business operations, which have grown to span advanced engineering and manufacturing for the automotive, defence, marine and aerospace industries, in addition to other motorsport programmes.

Despite the current economic downturn, Prodrive’s automotive engineering business remains buoyant as it works with vehicle manufacturers to accelerate the development of next generation fuel-efficient vehicles and alternative fuel technologies.

Together with Subaru, Prodrive’s commitment to its customer rally teams will also continue unabated for 2009 and beyond. Over the past 15 years, Prodrive has sold close to 500 rally cars to more than 400 private competitors and independent rally teams in 47 countries. During this time, Prodrive’s customers have won five consecutive Production World Rally Championships and countless international rallies. In 2008, Prodrive-supported customer teams have claimed eight rally championship titles around the world.

Looking ahead, 2010 will see the introduction of new World Rally Championship technical regulations, which provide Prodrive with an opportunity to prepare for re-entering the championship with a new team and build on its 24 years of World Rally Championship experience and success.

Honestly, the WRC isn't what it was in years past and probably isn't the greatest showcase for their cars anymore. Hopefully they continue with their involvement in Rally America (despite Rally America not being a huge showcase, either).

Much larger firms pulled out years ago. As much as I hope for a quick return, FIA seem even more dedicated to wrecking rallying in order to maintain F1 as a cash chow than usual, and at this stage (pun...) they seem to be on-track (and another pun, eh...).

Not directly maintaining a WRC works effort doesn't mean AWD turbo cars are out of the question on the production level; there are some makers that do just that. To us, the consumers, this is what matters really, since I for one will never afford a WRC ride and would never, ever daily drive a Group N suspension, much less own a car, so whether they make them or not matters very little. Granted, some of the Group N bits are useful for grassroots motorsports too, especially mounts and bushings and such, but other makers can step in easily enough.

However, whether Subaru will be able to maintain whatever cachet the works team had generated over two decades in the future remains to be seen (and I have my doubts... Audi and Lancia are one thing, but identifying Subaru with rallying in a few years if Subaru no longer compete may not be easy -- after all, Toyota changed rally history, were even more important to rallying than Subaru, and yet they are almost forgotten now).

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